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Romney ‘not expecting a landslide’ in Michigan

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February 10, 2012|By Glen Johnson

Mitt Romney spoke yesterday at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Ga. (Gerald Herbert/associated…)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a native of Michigan and the son of a former Michigan governor, says he would like to win the state’s primary later this month but “I’m not expecting a landslide.”

He tried to lower expectations against a resurgent Rick Santorum, who is now trying to defeat him in his home state, with Romney saying he thought he won Michigan by only 2 percentage points in 2008.

Official returns show the margin was more than quadruple than that — 9 percentage points.

“I think the people of Michigan understand that this is the chance to select as our nominee a person who was born and raised in Michigan, who understands Michigan values, and who will do everything in his power to get Michigan working again,” Romney told host Neil Cavuto.

The former Massachusetts governor also dismissed the suggestion that he suffered a clean sweep by Santorum in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado on Tuesday because he hadn’t worked hard enough after winning the Florida primary and Nevada caucuses last week.

“I have not been in my bed since Christmas. So, we’re working pretty darned hard. And I think people in Michigan and Arizona are going to give me their support. I sure hope so,” Romney said.

Those two states vote on Feb. 28.

And Romney tried to reduce concern over his candidacy harbored by some Republicans by noting that 2008 nominee John McCain lost 19 states en route to the nomination.

“I expect that I’ll lose a number of states before we actually get to a point where I get the 1,150 delegates that I need. But I must admit, I’d be a little surprised if we went all the way until, what, August or September, until we had a nominee. That would be unusual,” said Romney.